Picture-book elder Cheng Ming-chin dies: from 25 years in art classrooms to books from around the world
Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture announced October 29 that Cheng Ming-chin died on October 26, commemorating him at 95. The art educator, illustrator and picture-book advocate received the 2025 Golden Tripod Special Contribution Award; a presidential commendation will be requested.
Giving children’s pictures a place where they are taken seriously was an important part of Cheng Ming-chin’s work. Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture announced October 29 that the figure affectionately known as the picture-book grandpa had died October 26. Its release commemorated him at 95 and said it would request a presidential commendation. The recipient of the 2025, 49th Golden Tripod Special Contribution Award worked across art education, illustration, publishing and picture-book advocacy. The announcement date is not the date of death, and the commendation remains a proposed request rather than an issued honour.
A fish-patterned shirt and a world of images
In a portrait released with the announcement, he wears a shirt covered in colourful fish in front of a wall of pictures. Animals, flowers, sky and water create a lively rhythm of small visual discoveries. The photograph cannot replace a study of his complete work; the individual makers and titles of the background pictures are not identified. It is an entry into a person’s proximity to a world of images, not a new interview photograph made by this publication.
Born in Taipei in 1932, Cheng graduated from the art programme at Taipei Normal School and spent 25 years teaching art in elementary schools. With fellow alumni, he helped establish the Today Children’s Art Education Research Association, contributing experimentation and research to primary-school art education. Treating him only as a name on a bookshelf would miss those classroom years. How children draw and look, and how art enters learning, can illuminate how a picture book is understood.
Twenty-five years teaching, nearly 50 books
The ministry credits him with nearly 50 illustrated or picture books, naming Ten Brothers, Little Whale Swims the Sea and Little Paper Boat Sees the Sea, as well as editorial work on publications including Xiaoxuesheng Huakan. The nearly-50 total includes illustration and picture-book work; it should not become a claim that he independently wrote and illustrated every title. Readers returning to these books should check each edition’s text, illustration and publication credits. Illustration, editing and authorship occupy distinct places.
He also established Haikui Publishing and selected work for a collection of writing and pictures by children and young people from 46 countries. As an adviser to Han Sheng and Tai Ying publishers, he helped plan and edit series introducing international picture books and books for parents and children. Moving from making images to selecting books widens the view from one creator to publishing and circulation. A picture book needs not only to be drawn, but also recognised, edited and introduced before it can reach different homes and classrooms.
Selecting world picture books and Golden Tripod recognition
The second supplied photograph locates a moment in 2025’s Golden Tripod activities. Cheng sits before a microphone, holding a sheet marked with the 49th awards and 2025. A trophy stands on the side table; the projection names him and the Special Contribution Award. This is a past award-event photograph, not a current memorial gathering. His personal painting practice also brought recognition: the oil painting Tianyuan received a merit award at the Tai-Yang exhibition, and the watercolour Still Life received the Provincial Education Association President’s Award in a teachers’ art exhibition. He also represented Taiwan at international art-education conferences on multiple occasions.
Cheng at a 2025 Golden Tripod event, holding a sheet identifying the 49th awards, with a trophy beside him.
Culture Minister Li Yuan expressed condolences and recognised Cheng’s influence on Taiwanese children’s books and their promotion. Returning to the pages can be one way to remember him: noticing how pictures guide reading, how text and images meet, and what editorial and educational work lies behind a book. These are directions for reading, not conclusions about every unread title. The announcement supplies no schedule for a public memorial or new exhibition; any arrangements require later confirmation from the family or organisers.
